By Brendan Foster
Veteran journalist and Curtin University academic Sean Cowan fears for the future of journalism in WA because, not only did no one predict the death of Scoop Publishing, it wasn't meant to happen.
On Tuesday, Scoop Publishing managing director David Hogan said the company was shutting up shop after 19 years because it was no longer viable to produce its nine magazines with the poor state of the WA economy.
Who else is catering for lifestyle readers in WA?: veteran journalist Sean Cowan.
Mr Cowan's said the closure of Scoop was of concern because their publications were the sort of niche magazines that were expected to survive.
"Much of the discussion about the future of print publications of late has been around the issue of 'niche' publications," he told WAtoday.
The latest edition of Scoop.
"Those magazines that can find such a niche and exclusively cater for it are thought to have had brighter and longer futures. Who else is catering for lifestyle readers in WA?"
The former crime reporter for the West Australian newspaper, said Scoop's demise was particularly disappointing given it was an independent publisher and not aligned to any of this state's other big media organisations.
And with Seven West Media about to buy the Sunday Times, which would give media baron Kerry Stokes and his daily newspaper a monopoly on mainstream print media in Western Australia, Mr Cowan says independent publishers are more important than ever.
"This comes at a time when the federal government is considering changes to media ownership laws [although this appears to be on hold pending an election] and the number of different media voices in any market is considered an important part of any such consideration," he said.
Mr Cowan said Scoop's closure was also another blow to WA journalists struggling to ply their trade in an industry brutally hit with redundancies and job losses.
He also fears the quality of journalism is becoming more and more diluted.
"The print sector has been the hardest hit and journalists in that area are now also bracing for the possibility of job losses at the Sunday Times if the rumoured buyout of that publication goes through," he said.
"More journalism jobs are lost and more journalists have joined the ranks of the unemployed, increasing competition for any jobs that do become vacant," he said.
"Many of WA's best and most senior journalists have left the industry over the course of the past four-to-five years for fear of not having any chance of seeing out their careers in journalism. And once they've left, few have returned because, put simply, there aren't many jobs and those that are vacant are usually entry-level positions."
He said in the end, Scoop, like many other glossy magazines, disappeared off our shelves because the "internet killed the radio star".
"This is because the material that has historically been carried in magazines is now so easily found on the net, and usually for free," he said.
"One only has to look at the lad magazines for evidence of this. Zoo Weekly, FHM and Ralph simply couldn't offer anything that tradies couldn't read or ogle on their smart phones in their lunch breaks.
"Even Playboy now seems to realise it can't survive offering nothing but nude photographs when there are millions of them on the net."